TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JUNE 8
452 Attila the Hun invades Italy.
632 Muhammad, the founder of Islam and unifier of Arabia, dies.
1786 In New York City, commercially manufactured ice cream was advertised for the first time.
1790 The first loan for the U.S. was repaid. The Temporary Loan of 1789 was negotiated and secured on September 18, 1789 by Alexander Hamilton.
1861 Tennessee votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
1904 U.S. Marines land in Tangiers, Morocco, to protect U.S. citizens.
1908 King Edward VII of England visits Czar Nicholas II of Russia in an effort to improve relations between the two countries.
1915 U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.
1949 George Orwell publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four Orwell’s nightmarish description of a totalitarian society set in the year 1984 is one of the most significant works of English literature and one of the best-known novels of all time.
1949 An FBI report names a number of Hollywood stars including Edward G. Robinson members of the Communist Party.
1953 The Supreme Court forbids segregated lunch counters in Washington, D.C.1965 President Lyndon Johnson authorizes commanders in Vietnam to commit U.S. ground forces to combat.
1967 Israeli airplanes attacked the USS Liberty in the Mediterranean during the 6-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors. 34 U.S. Navy crewmen were killed. Israel later called the incident a tragic mistake due to the mis-identification of the ship. The U.S. has never publicly investigated the incident.
1968 James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., is captured at the London Airport.
1969 President Richard Nixon meets with President Thieu of South Vietnam to tell him 25,000 U.S. troops will pull out by August.
1972 Nick Út takes his famous “napalm girl” photo The Pulitzer Prize winning image officially entitled “The Terror of War” depicts nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc and other Vietnamese children fleeing a napalm attack. It has become one of the best-known symbols for the indescribable sufferings in armed conflicts.
1978 A jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled that the “Mormon will,” was a forgery. The work was supposedly written by Howard Hughes.
1982 President Reagan became the first American president to address a joint session of Britain’s Parliament.
1987 New Zealand becomes a nuclear-free zone The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 barred any nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from entering the country.
1987 The secretary “Fawn Hall” to national security aide Lt. Colonel Oliver North testified at the Iran-Contra hearings, saying she had helped to shred some documents. She had testified in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
1991 A victory parade was held in Washington, DC, to honor veterans of the Persian Gulf War.
1995 U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O’Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
